Cavan Moore, 27, pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree assault in Rockingham County Superior Court as part of a plea bargain he struck with county prosecutors. (JAMES KIMBLE PHOTO)

Raymond man pleads guilty to breaking infant son’s bones

By JAMES A. KIMBLEUnion Leader Correspondent

BRENTWOOD — A Raymond man admitted on Wednesday to breaking bones of his infant son last December when the boy was five to six weeks old.

Cavan Moore, 27, pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree assault in Rockingham County Superior Court as part a plea bargain he struck with county prosecutors.

.He is expected to be sentenced on Jan. 23.

Moore was indicted on 14 counts of second-degree assault, and six misdemeanor counts of child endangerment.

A grand jury added charges of felony witness tampering earlier this month against Moore for allegedly contacting his wife while being held in jail, asking her to claim that either she or her mother harmed their son...Moore was arrested by Raymond police on Dec. 28, 2012, after he brought his infant son to Exeter Hospital.

Assistant County Attorney Kirsten Wilson told a judge on Wednesday that doctors who analyzed X-rays taken of the baby boy concluded that he suffered from “classic child abuse fractures.”..The baby, who was born Nov. 3 2012, suffered breaks to his ankle and ribs, she said.

Prosecutors believe that Moore inflicted the injuries sometime between Dec. 14 and Dec. 28, 2012 — a period where Moore was in charge of diaper changes and taking care of the baby...Raymond police Detective Richard Labell testified at a hearing in September that Moore told him that he may have “stepped on his son’s ankle while playing video games.”

Labell said he briefly left the hospital room where he interviewed Moore to let him write his statement about the injuries. Labell testified that when he returned to the room, Moore “told me he may have sat on his son’s ankle.”..Judge Kenneth McHugh, who accepted Moore’s plea on Wednesday, had decided prosecutors would be able to use those statements at trial.

Public defender Larissa Kiers said that her client still disagrees with how Labell characterized their conversations, but acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict him on the assault charges...Moore will remain held at the Rockingham County Jail in Brentwood until his sentencing in January.